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So it has been around 9 months where I literally ceased to update my blog. But hey, I’ve finally managed some free time and here I am, back to writing. Though I wish I could keep this habit for a longer period of time, but then there is a word famous amongst all the IIMs i.e “rigor”. The academic rigor here is just beyond explanation. Yes it could be a culture which was inherited from our mentor institute i.e IIM Lucknow. But then after it stopped mentoring, I believe IIM Kashipur was able to get the balance between the academic rigor and extra-curricular activities.

So, I landed up here on the 29th of June and realised that there was an induction programme going on. So the importance of induction is actually to make us get used to the daily routine we will have to go through in these entire two years. We learnt a lot about clubs, committees and other such student bodies. Apart from that, we learnt the most important thing in MBA (technically PGDM but yeah), i.e Deadlines. Deadlines are meant to keep us on our toes all the time. Finally our induction got over, and we were inducted into the IIM Kashipur family. Here, the familiarity and bonding between the students is so much that all of us know each other by our full names. The entire batch of 200+ students know each other in person very well. The only differentiation could be of the individual’s best friend circle. Apart from that everyone is very much helpful and surviving here is not too tough if you have such people around you.

So, in the initial days it was tough for me. Back during my engineering days I was able to meet my mom on every weekend. Now, it was a totally different scenario for me. Hence initially I had to face a lot of problems in living totally away from parents. But then, the academics kept me busy throughout the entire period of three months. A lot of events happened, like the Coalescence (Annual Business Summit), Kacofonia (Inter-Section wars), Teacher’s day and a lot more.

Also, during these three months, I was finally able to manage some time, and visit the beautiful city of lake, the city of Nainital twice. That too, I was lucky enough to spend my Diwali in Nainital. The views were absolutely mesmerising and I think my iPad might not have done justice to the views which could have been seen from the naked eye. If you want to experience it, I would suggest you to actually visit Nainital during Diwali and experience the same. I am sharing a few glimpses of the view which I was lucky enough to see in person.

And finally, there was the end term examinations. The end term examinations clashed entirely with the Durga Pujo, and that was a total turn-off for me. But yes, I had taken a calculated risk of catching the Durga Pujo on the last day. The risk was, that I had to leave my exam mid-way to reach home by midnight. And yes, I pulled off the stunt totally in time i.e just before the final call, I was able to reach the Delhi Airport and board the night flight. Finally I was able to reach home and then I was able to catch up with the Durga Puja in Mumbai.

So after a small vacation of a week, I got myself mentally charged. Though my parents were of the opinion that I could have waited for a few more days but then I was bound to return back within a week due to the next term registration processes happening in the college. So, after I came back, finally during Agnitraya, the college Cultural and Management festival of IIM Kashipur, I got spare time to write this experience. I believe I’ll be able to write again in the next three months or so. See you all back again in the next three months.

P.S The above picture explains the first three months of my life, a journey into the depth of IIM Kashipur.

1. A scenario where Reddit India had tweeted about Flipkart that an Amazon carton was found in a Flipkart office and Flipkart replied to RedditIndia that it had recycled the box into a dustbin. As an Amazon representative how will you reply using a tweet below 100 words and a hashtag.

Writing Ability Test : 2 Topics were given to us and we had to write it for about 20 minutes. There was no breakup for specific sections. The first image was of a lady serving food to her daughters and her husband is what I perceived from the picture. You could relate it to the picture below.

We had to think on it for 1 minute, and write down the answers of the questions in the next 4 minutes. And the other topic for the WAT was demonetisation which we had to write 250+ words in 20 minutes.

GE (or rather I should say GD disguised as GE) : We had a 12 member group and there were 2 panelists. The topic given to us was, “Should MP / MLAs have basic educational qualifications?”

I would say it turned out more into a fish-market than a proper GD with everyone putting in their efforts so as to keep their point in front of the panelists. There was 0 to less co-ordination among the team members and everyone tried to shout as much as possible. As if one shouts, they think that they will be applauded by the panel even if making irrelevant statements *slow-claps*.

Personal Interview : General questions about myself. Why the switch from IT to MBA? What are the technical aspects of a business? Why do you think an MBA will help you in the long run? What do you know about international business? What do you think about demonetisation? Why SIIB Pune?

So it has been three- four months where I haven’t posted a single blog post yet. I might have got time, but I probably utilised the time for some other purposes. Though in these three four months, I did realise that I wasn’t really a perfect fit for the city of Calcutta. But, I did grow a liking for this city in these past few months. I came back home, Mumbai, in the month of August. My final semesters had just ended and I didn’t probably have the time to even attend my college farewell. Not that I was eager to attend it, but I had to wish goodbye to a few friends, which I didn’t.

I had attended a rural festival, which I will be sharing with you of course! As a narrator I might face difficulties in explaining how vibrant and glorious the rural areas of West Bengal are, but I would definitely try my best in explaining. Amidst the race to be the best, I find myself lost somewhere in this crowd. I do feel at times, why am I even a part of this rat-race? But, to survive in this world, one has to have a decent amount of qualification and the ability to survive using that qualification. Charles Darwin, you’ve nailed it since 1854!

Not only that, it has been already 6+ months that I faced a failure, and it literally took me 3 months to get over it. But now, it seems as a stepping stone as days pass by. People tend to give up after facing setbacks, but to be honest, even if I try I cannot be one of them. I know someday, I will have my share of success and I will shine someday.

So let’s come back to the main topic: The fine line between aspirations and dreams. Aspiration is something, like (of course, don’t go into the medicinal meaning) you aspire to be in one of the top-most B-Schools of the country. But you dream to be rich. Lets explain this mathematically. Aspiration is a function of dream. Say aspiration is x, then dream is f(x). You can prove me wrong as well, but this is my perception towards aspiration.

These few months have been a bit hectic. Life played many games with me, and in retaliation, I too accepted a few challenges and lost some of them. But, in the end, I learnt that I needed to believe in myself. I needed to learn more, concentrate more, and set realistic goals and aspirations instead of jumping to dreams. So, you can consider it as a note which I wrote to myself, or as a narration from me to you, the reader.

Ah, long time no posts on the blog. It must be surprising to all of you whether I quit blogging or not. Of course I wouldn’t. But I was a little busy giving exams and finally I got some free time to write about a small trip which I took a few days ago.

I spent four years of my life in a remote place called Kolaghat situated in Purba Medinipur district. It serves as a border for the two districts of Howrah and Purba Medinipur. It falls en route from Kolkata to Kharagpur. But I had the realisation in my final year that I should be travelling. After all, trips taken in the final year remain memorable to the students. Not that my college life was beautifully amazing, but it was considerably peaceful in the remote area of Kolaghat. Mostly surrounded by natural beauty and of course, some rare birds.

So one fine day, we were sitting on the terrace and discussing pre-independence Bengali Literature. The first name came to our mind was Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. As explained by Wikipedia, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was a great Bengali novelist and he is the most plagiarised Bengali author till date. Suddenly, a friend suggested, why not visit his house because we are so nearby to his place. And so, we left one fine afternoon, in search of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s house.

The friend knew half the route but the remaining half he forgot. Why? Because he was a child when he had visited Sarat Chandra’s house. So according to his directions, we got down on Deulti Station which was the starting point to Sarat Chandra’s house.

The direction towards Sarat Chandra’s house at Samtaber

After getting down, we headed towards the main road i.e NH6. Now came the searching part. We asked the locals about the location of Sarat Chandra’s house. They guided us to a nearby auto stand from where we had to catch an auto to his house. So we went to the auto stand, and found out that we were in the right direction. The auto guys charged 100 rupees for a round trip to the auto stand from Sarat Chandra’s place. We didn’t negotiate else it could have come down to 80 rupees. Nevertheless, we left from the auto stand and got down at Sarat Chandra’s house.

The entrance to Sarat Chandra’s house

Then we entered his house. Trust me, the peace and serenity is rarely to be found elsewhere. I know the picture is hazy but I was awestruck in the beauty of the place. The place is mesmerising and simple.

The caretaker, Mr Dulal Manna was an old man, in his 70s. He started us to explain, by suggesting us to go to the first floor and check out the scenery from the place.

The river used to flow in front of the house, during Sarat Chandra’s younger days

We went on the first floor. The beauty is simply incomparable. The rooms were locked but the caretaker would have opened them on our request. We did not ask the caretaker to open them for us. Then we got down and then the caretaker showed us the place where Sarat Chandra used to sit, and write his novels, and some other places in the home where Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had come to visit him. The home was beautifully maintained by the old caretaker and he devoted his life in maintaining the house.

Sarat Chandra’s writing desk

He stayed in the house for the past 40 years maintaining it. The house has been well maintained and preserved. The house gained Heritage of National Status since the year 2007 and the Government has been trying to maintain the house by helping the caretaker.

The backyard

Then we bid goodbye to the caretaker and due to his photo shy nature we couldn’t click a picture with him.

A day well spent, at Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s house. I must say it was a beautiful and serene experience. If you are travelling to Digha, please do spare some time and visit this National Heritage site. Thank me later.

Most of us find inspiration around us, in the form of good samaritans. And, everyone has that specific set of people who give us inspiration. Inspiration to do good, and help the mankind in the slightest way possible. Yet, a handful of us, have the guts to create examples which we could narrate in our daily lives.

I also had my own set of people who give me inspiration, not only on occasional basis but also on a daily basis. But Siddesh Manjunath, this 10 year old boy, did something, which was enough for me to get inspired for the whole year. I’ll explain in the upcoming paragraph, how did this boy inspire me!

So, this boy, Siddesh Manjunath, worked with his father at a tea shop in Avaregere village in Davangere district, Karnataka. He had studied upto class 5 and then due to certain unfavourable circumstances, he joined his father so that he could add to the household income. And, on his way, from his house to his father’s tea shop, there is a railway track which has to be crossed in order to reach his father’s tea shop.

On the 17th of November, like any other day, he was going to his father’s tea stall to help him. But when he went near the tracks to cross them, he saw that there was a big gap in the railway tracks. He ran furiously towards his dad’s shop and gathered some villagers who, on inspection realized that the gap was serious and there can be serious consequences if not paid attention.

Amidst the chaos, Siddesh heard the honking of a train coming from the opposite side. Without giving any second thought, he rushed towards the train with his red T-Shirt waving in the air. At a distance, luckily the driver spotted the red T-shirt and stopped the train immediately. A mishap was averted. And the lives of 800 people were saved that day.

Though, if it were not for this little 10 year old boy, there would have been a big accident which would have culminated into loss of lives. Also, if it were not for his courage, the train would not have stopped, and the accident could not have been avoided.

Obviously, if a 10 year old boy, can save lives of 800+ people, I’m sure, that we, as individuals who have access to our basic necessities can do far more than this little boy has done. Since I read the incident, I felt inspired. And not to mention, this was the best inspiration I could ever get, from someone.

I was in the 6th grade during that time. I still remember, on the 26th of July, we had a half day. Our school had instructed our parents to take us along with them. My dad had came to pick me up from the school. I was happy then, unknown to the situation happening in Mumbai. I came back home, only to see dad getting ready for office. Till the time, I could understand and tell dad not to leave the home due to the torrential rainy conditions in Mumbai, my dad had already left for office.

Whenever I hear of floods, the very first thing comes to my mind is 2005 Mumbai floods. That was a very devastating phase for the whole of Maharashtra. The casualties were over 1000 along with a lot of cattle killed during the floods. Trains came to a standstill and the skies were totally dark.

Then, in recent days, I noticed that there was a very similar situation in Chennai. Universities and apartments were filled with water. People were in chaos. Lack of food and water made situations more worse. Here I’d like to share an anecdote about a person I met on my return flight to Kolkata.

So, the person is a Neuro-surgeon in Singapore and his family was based in Chennai. After a few greetings and exchanges, I came to know that he was going to Kolkata to attend a conference. And from there he’ll be travelling to Chennai to visit his family. After a few talks, I realized that this person had paid 4X the fare to Chennai for a ticket to Coimbatore. Why? Because most of the private airlines were charging excessively for the airports which were nearby to Chennai. He told me that his family was fine, because they were living on the fourth floor. But the ground floor was totally inundated with water. Water was about to reach the first floor as well, but luckily it didn’t.

I could see that he wasn’t complaining. Rather he was happy that his family was safe and sound. He just wanted to go home back, to be with his family members.

I’d like to raise only one question to my readers. Couldn’t be the flood averted? Weren’t the measures enough to avoid the grave conditions we are seeing today? Is it not possible to avoid the calamities?